Last night President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that South Africa would be going on a full lockdown as of Thursday 26th March,midnight. President Ramaphosa did however make exemption to essential services that South Africans can have access to during the 21-day lockdown period.
Here is the full list of essential services that will be maintained during the National lockdown ;
1. Electricity – stable power supply with no loadshedding
Public and private organisations, their staff and service providers essential to the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity will need to continue to operate. This includes municipalities, and the suppliers of logistics, feedstock and maintenance will be required to continue to operate and provide security of electricity supply.
2. Water supply, sewerage and sanitation
Public and private organisations, their staff and service providers essential to the security of supply of bulk and potable water and sanitation must continue to operate and provide vital water and sanitation services. This includes municipalities and those involved in the supply of materials, chemicals and related equipment.
3. ICT – datacentres, fibre optic infrastructure, towers and antennae
We have extensively engaged with the ICT sector and are satisfied that connectivity will remain stable during this period. In this time industry collaboration will be critical to ensure that society remains connected and functional. The ICT sector including data centres, fibre optic providers, towers and antennae will need to operate at high capacity.
The industry will collaborate and use multiple data sets to provide predictive insights into spread and impact dynamics of the crisis which will enable government and society’s ability to be proactive in measures that reduce the curve and social and economic impact of the spread.
Social platforms will allow our people to remain socially included and these platforms remain critical to the dissemination of accurate information. However, our citizens are reminded that cyber security is off the utmost importance and to be vigilant to cyber criminals who will, during this time, try to exploit the public.
CRITICAL BUSINESS CONTINUITY SERVICES TO SUPPORT THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF SOUTH AFRICANS
1.Food & essential products – related manufacturing and processing, and distribution
In order to ensure that people remain well-nourished and apply high personal hygiene to combat the spread of Covid19, the following operations will continue:
Essential products include: toilet paper, cleaners, sanitizers and disinfectants, personal hygiene products, bedding and clothing, and essential supplies for those taking care of the sick and in order for people to remain healthy.
2. Enabling Services
To assist in the Covid19 response, the following services are required to continue operations:
President Cyril Ramphosa said that a detailed list will be made available in due course. Other than the above, businesses will need to shut down during the lockdown.
Source: https://sanef.org.za/full-list-of-essential-services-during-lockdown/